Brian Kelly on LSU firing: 'I never thought that would occur'

Brian Kelly never thought he’d see the day he’d be fired from LSU, despite knowing so much about the college football coaching business. With over three decades in, Kelly’s been highly successful, but never got over the hump to win a national title at Notre Dame or LSU.

Simply put, the LSU administration thought time ran out for Kelly in Baton Rouge. They fired him and pivoted to landing Lane Kiffin by season’s end.

“Let’s put it in perspective. You know, I’ve had 33 years in this business, over 300 wins. You know, had two losing seasons in 33 years. So, you know, my entire career has been built upon, you know, having some kind of success,” Kelly said on Dusty and Danny in the Morning. “And when you get fired, you’re told that you’re not the guy for the job. And so, you know, that’s probably the first thing you start thinking about, you know, the things that you’ve done for three decades … You look carefully about why this happened, and look, the easy answer is, I didn’t wine enough games. You know, that’s the bottom line, right? 

“But you know, we came there to build a program, and you know, we didn’t get a chance to finish it. So I think the overriding emotion in that respect is, you know, disappointed that we didn’t get to finish the job. I think that’s probably the one thing, because I’ve been in it long enough to know, as you said in your first comments, you know you’re in this long enough you’re probably going to get fired, but I never thought that would occur. So I think the emotions, more than anything else, for me, was disappointing.”

Kelly finished his three-plus seasons at LSU with a 34-14 record, not too bad right? But after winning 10 games in each of his first two seasons, the Tigers went 9-4 in 2024 and were 5-3 before his firing in 2025. They made the SEC Championship Game his first season and he coached Heisman-winning QB Jayden Daniels.

Unfortunately for Kelly and company, defense was a problem early on and injuries throughout were his downfall. That included the struggles and injuries from QB Garrett Nussmeier this past season. Going all in for a national title fell flat for the university.

Kelly is 297-109-2 (after vacated wins in 2012 and ‘13 at Notre Dame), with Grand Valley State, Central Michigan, Cincinnati, Notre Dame and LSU. It remains to be seen if Kelly will land elsewhere in the future as a head coach, since he’s expressed interest. But, there doesn’t seem to be a huge buzz surrounding him at the moment.